IRS criticism continues

June 17, 2013

Democrats in Congress may well be facing a test of whether their allegiance is primarily to Americans and the nation's ideals - or party loyalty.

To their credit, Democrat lawmakers who have spoken out about the Internal Revenue Service scandal, in which conservative groups were singled out for harassment, have condemned the agency, and rightly so.

Initially, that was relatively easy. President Barack Obama's administration insisted the illegal, un-American activities were engaged in by a handful of "low-level" employees at the IRS office in Cincinnati. But during the ensuing weeks, it has developed higher-ups, including the former IRS commissioner, knew about the scandal and misled Congress about it.

That changes the entire discussion.

Now, at least one agency employee in Cincinnati has said orders on how to handle conservative groups came from IRS headquarters in Washington.

At what point, we wonder, will some Democrats decide to back away from their outrage, and fall back into line supporting the administration?

They should not of course. Again, what happened at the IRS was, to be plain, wrong.